Ryan's Journal

"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?" — David Mitchell

Prince Olav Harbour, South Georgia Island

Posted at 11:45 pm, October 8th, 2004

It’s far too late to still be awake, but we were out hiking until after nine o’clock and then spent a long time after dinner talking. The weather never really broke today so the afternoon activity was a late-day hike between two bays. Ted, Mike, Shane and I started off on the beach with elephant seals and gentoos, traveled up through frozen tussocks and into snow and rock, crossed over a high ridge shrouded in fog, and a few miles later came upon a small cemetary on a cliff before arriving at a whaling station that has been abandoned since the 1930’s. The hike was excellent — Ted got to do some snowboarding while the rest of us just sort of reveled in the solitude — and the whaling station is straight out of a Steven King movie, with a feeling of both familiarity and unfamiliarity in the wreckage that gives it a sense of mystery. The current plan is to stay here in the morning to explore further and do a bit of skiing before heading on in the afternoon, weather permitting.

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